International Seminar Ambassadors +1 leaves an action plan to catalyze climate commitments
hace 10 year
From August 24 to 29, Lima hosted the International Seminar Ambassadors +1, where 25 young people from Peru and Latin America and the Caribbean generated a position in the context of Nationally Determined Contributions and the new climate agreement, and an action plan to catalyze more climate commitments and actions on the eve of COP21 in Paris.
The road to COP21 is getting shorter, countries have just met in the ADP (Durban Platform) working group negotiations and 59 countries have already submitted their Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The challenges we face are multiple and at different scales: from raising the ambition of the commitments we assume as nations, to facilitating the conditions for the implementation of the new climate agreement and the National Contributions with the articulated work of multiple actors and sectors in the national and international sphere. Latin American countries have been assuming positions from their negotiation blocs to the elaboration of their INDCs. In this scenario, what is our opinion regarding the positions of our countries in the national and international sphere? What role should and do we young people want to assume?
These were the core questions that were addressed from August 24-29 at the “International Seminar Ambassadors +1: Youth in Climate Change Governance” organized by Generation +1, an initiative of Libélula, and by the Regional Program for Energy Security and Climate Change in Latin America of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation; and with the support of the Public Front COP20/COP21 of the Ministry of Environment, the United Nations Development Program; Cambia.pe of the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law, the Clima de Cambios initiative of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and the Delegation of the European Union in Peru.
The International Seminar was attended by 25 young +1 ambassadors, 45 renowned specialists as speakers and a general public of 150 attendees, who gathered at the facilities of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and the United Nations House. The +1 ambassadors, coming from different regions of Peru and from Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay and Venezuela, had the mission to generate a position on the challenges of ambition and implementation of the climate agreement and the National Contributions, where the role that actors such as universities, schools, youth organizations and municipalities should assume in promoting climate actions was recognized.
This position was the starting point for the +1 Ambassadors' advocacy plan, the construction of which began during the International Seminar and which represents the roadmap for the +1 Ambassadors' action during the following months, in the lead up to COP21. This exercise underlines the importance of perceiving young people not only as isolated actors, but as citizens, students, members of youth spaces, consumers, etc., who can exercise their citizenship by working with multiple actors in society, in a proactive manner.
In order to achieve these results, the International Seminar included open training spaces: keynote speeches, dialogue and debate tables with renowned specialists and leaders in different topics. Some of these spaces were aimed at recognizing the challenges we face, such as the keynote talk “A world with zero emissions: How close are we?”Other spaces were aimed at recognizing solutions and possible actions in the face of climate change, such as the dialogue “Building sustainable and resilient cities” with the participation of Jorge Fernandez from the Swedish Consulate with the case of SimbioCity, Mariana Alegre from Lima Cómo Vamos and Ximena Giraldo from the Municipality of Miraflores; the roundtable “Youth in climate change governance” by Gonzalo Alcalde and Pasko Kisic from Foro Nacional Internacional, Diego Padilla from the Public Front of the Ministry of Environment and Chris Wright from Adopt a Negotiator; and the mixed keynote speech “Positioning climate change in public opinion” with Jimmy Carrillo from SPDA, with the case of Cambia.pe and Maite Cigarán of Libélula with the case of ConexiónCOP.
Likewise, generating a youth position on climate change governance is not an easy task, therefore, the International Seminar had spaces such as the future scenarios workshop that allowed the +1 ambassadors to build a shared vision of the development they want for Latin America and the Caribbean, their vision of the “world +1”. This vision was a kind of compass for the other decisions, since influencing the particular juncture of the National Contributions and the new climate agreement is, in fact, a pretext to promote the vision of the world we want. See vision of the “+1 world”.”.
On the other hand, the experience of each of the +1 ambassadors was key to enrich the work. In the group we had diverse experiences such as Gabriela Quiroz, climatology specialist of the General Directorate of Meteorology/Climatology of SENAMHI, Carlos Amanquez, Coordinator of the Communications Area of the Argentine Network of Municipalities facing Climate Change (RAMCC) and Bernardo Pereira, coordinator of the Promotion of University Participation (FOPU) of the University of the Pacific, to name just a few.
After 6 days of work during the International Seminar, a consensus was reached on the elements of the position regarding the contributions and the new climate agreement of the +1 ambassadors, which will be shared in a campaign to be launched soon. Focused working groups were also formed to carry forward the advocacy work plan to catalyze more commitments and climate actions with local governments, universities, schools and youth organizations. Finally, the 6 ambassadors +1 researchers coordinated their actions to initiate the process of collecting information within their 6 countries (Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela), so that by the end of the year we will have a reflective look at the quality of Latin American youth participation in the processes of construction and validation of the INDCs.
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